


A Home Built of Stone and Magic and Love

by theartofbeinganerd



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/M, Fitz as James Steward, Fluff, I couldn't resist the temptation, Ilvermorny Origins, Jemma Simmons as Isolt Sayre, Not really angsty I think??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-18 23:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7336405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofbeinganerd/pseuds/theartofbeinganerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma Simmons has fled her wicked aunt for America, where she finds a new, albeit lonely, life in the mountains of Massachusetts. When she's abandoned by her one friend, a grumpy Pukwudgie that owes her a life-debt, following an attack on two young girls she nurses back to health, she resigns herself to a lonely life once more. Then, she meets Leo Fitz. </p>
<p>A Fitzsimmons Ilvermorny Origins AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Home Built of Stone and Magic and Love

**Author's Note:**

> So ever since I read the backstory on Ilvermorny, I couldn't help but think that Jemma IS Isolt, and this idea just wouldn't leave me. I apologize in advance for any mistakes, because I literally just wrote this in like twenty minutes. Also, I didn't quite use proper language for the 1600s, but...I tried? A little?
> 
> You can also check out [this awesome gifset](http://ughfitz.tumblr.com/post/146674093486/a-home-built-of-stone) that goes along with the story made by [ughfitz](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wokemeup/pseuds/ughfitz)!

It was still quite early in the day, and already Jemma and Lance had had a full day of adventuring through the thick forest surrounding their tiny cabin home. They’d been to see the Wampus kittens in the pre-light of the morning, and even though Lance had grumbled the entire time, Jemma had then insisted on foraging for some berries to feast on.

Lance was as surly and combative as usual, but Jemma took it all in stride, just as she always had since she’d happened upon him about to be torn apart by a rather vicious Hidebehind. Even though Lance always scoffed at such sentiments, Jemma knew with certainty that she would be quite a bit lonelier if she had never met the strange little Pukwudgie – despite the fact that he insisted that he was only still tagging along because of his debt to her.

In fact, Lance was the first friend she’d had in so _very_ long. Her cruel aunt Raina had kept her in solitude ever since murdering her parents when she was five and stealing her away to be raised the way Raina saw fit. Raina had been awful and manipulative, always insisting that those without magic or pure blood were to be hated and disturbed by, but Jemma had never listened. Truly, all she’d wanted in her youth were two things; companionship, and to go to Hogwarts, the wizarding school Raina often talked about but refused to allow Jemma to attend.

Now, Jemma had found at least one of them in her new home in America, and with her freedom from Raina’s demanding presence, she could finally be _happy_ , in such a way that she hadn’t been since her parents had been taken from her.

The thought brought a soft, fond smile to her lips, and Jemma was just about to give into the urge to share her warm feelings, even if it was with the ungrateful and grumpy Lance. But, then the comfortable silence of the forest was pierced by a blood-curdling scream, and she forgot all about it.

Jemma gasped, immediately grabbing for the wand she’d stolen from Raina hidden in the skirts of her dress, but Lance threw out an arm to keep her from rushing toward the noise. “Stay _here_!” he demanded, poising his bow and poisoned arrow at the ready as he darted away.

Jemma gave a disbelieving huff at the instruction, and remained in place for only a moment before she hurried off after him. She entered a little clearing between the trees, and sucked in a sharp breath at the sight she found awaiting her. The very same Hidebehind that she had once saved Lance from had apparently found a pair of new victims – two adult humans, dead at its feet. In moments, Jemma also noticed that two young girls had been involved in the attack as well, and were injured and unconscious at the edge of the treeline, obviously being saved for later – after the Hidebehind had taken care of their parents.

With Jemma’s magic and Lance’s arrows, the Hidebehind stood very little chance, and it wasn’t long before it was defeated – for good this time. Standing over its body, Lance gave a victorious laugh, slinging his bow over his shoulder. “Excellent work, Jemma! This one won’t be any trouble anymore!” he crowed, his voice nearly drowning out the soft moans of pain coming from the wounded young girls. “We ought to get back to those blackberries, then,” he added, marching back in the direction of the blackberry bushes they’d been journeying toward before happening upon the attack.

“Lance!” Jemma cried in disbelief and anger, dropping to her knees beside the girls as she did a quick scan of their injuries. “Help me bring them home so that we can heal them!”

“ _What_?!” Lance spun around to face her, throwing up his hands in incredulousness. “Jemma, they’re already as good as dead! There’s nothing we can do for them, and I wouldn’t help ‘em even if I could! The only reason I even help you is because you _unfortunately_ saved my life!”

Jemma gaped at Lance, her eyes narrowed as she fumed in outrage at his lack of kindness and the way he could be so downright _flippant_ about the dying children. “ _Fine_!” she snapped, “Then you can accept saving one of them as repayment for my _unfortunate_ saving of your life!” Normally, she wouldn’t have been in such need of another’s aid; she could’ve just Apparated back to the cabin with the girls, but she feared that would only cause them more harm, so she was left only with the option of carrying them – which she couldn’t do alone.

Lance stood his ground for another moment, glancing between Jemma and the girls with annoyance clear on his rounded, grey face. Then, he let out a grudgingly acceptant sigh and crossed the clearing to approach Jemma and the girls. He hefted the older girl into his arms, while Jemma carefully lifted the younger, and together, they trudged back to the cabin.

Once Lance had laid the older girl onto Jemma’s bed beside her sister, Jemma turned from him to search through her potion ingredients in order to being some healing potions for the girls. Without sparing him a glance, she snapped, “I have no further need of you, Lance.”

Though she couldn’t see him, she could practically feel his glare upon her back. And when she dared to throw a look over her shoulder, she found that her only friend in the world had vanished.

-

Jemma spent the next few days nursing the young girls back to health, and finally, after nearly a week, she became sure that they were going to survive. It was surely a miracle, after how bleak their futures had looked just days ago, and Jemma was utterly relieved.

In further proof of miracles, Jemma found not long after that the two girls (who she found were named Daisy and Elena) were of magical heritage, much like her. Their family had come to America just as she had, as their parents were apparently great lovers of adventure, evidenced by the fact that they had adopted Daisy while in China, and later Elena while in Colombia. Their latest adventure, though, had proved to be their last. They, like Jemma, had been unfamiliar with the vicious Hidebehind, and had fatally mistaken it for a much less frightening Boggart.

Though Daisy and Elena were going to live, and were well enough to keep a conversation with her, Jemma knew they still had quite of healing ahead of them. Despite her intense desire to return to their parents and give them a proper burial immediately, she was forced to wait a couple more weeks before she felt confident the girls were well enough to be left alone in the cabin for a few hours.

Finally, she was able to return to the clearing that she had found Daisy and Elena in, planning to erect graves that the children could visit their parents at in the future. However, as Jemma stepped through the thick line of trees into the clearing, she was shocked to find that she’d been beaten to it – there was a young man, perhaps about her age, with short curly hair and a sweaty forehead. He was just finishing marking the graves, and Jemma noted the lack of tools with disbelief, coming to the conclusion that the man must’ve dug the graves with his notably dirty hands.

When he was finished with that, he turned to the broken wands that had been lying beside the bodies of Daisy and Elena’s parents. With a furrowed brow, he studied the core jutting out of one of the wands curiously and carefully. After a long moment, he waved it casually.

As the wand was in the hands of a No-Maj, it immediately rejected him and caused him to fly backward, and Jemma watched in horror as his skull cracked against a tree and he slumped against it, unconscious.

“Oh dear,” Jemma murmured, rushing to his side and checking his pulse. As she found that it was nice and strong beneath her fingertips, Jemma couldn’t help but note that not only was his skin appealingly warm, but he had a rather attractive face, his features perfectly symmetrical and oddly welcoming. But, she shook off her odd distraction after a moment, hurrying to bury the wands before any other unfortunate No-Majs could happen upon them and then grabbing a hold of the man so that she could Apparate them back to her cabin.

When Jemma appeared in the middle of the cabin with the strange man, both Daisy and Elena perked up at the sight of the guest. She was surprised to find recognition in both pairs of eyes, and it was Daisy that cried excitedly, “You found Mr. Fitz!”

“Mr. Fitz?” Jemma repeated, carefully laying the man on a pile of animal pelts on the floor. “You know him?”

“He’s friends with Mum and Dad,” Elena informed her with a nod and a smile. “He was on the boat with us!”

“Ah,” Jemma murmured, studying this _Mr. Fitz_ with a careful eye. After a long moment, she let out a long sigh and set to taking care of her newest patient.

-

When Mr. Fitz – or ‘ _just Fitz_ ’, as he later insisted – woke later that day, he was obviously surprised to find himself in Jemma’s little home, and even more so to find Daisy and Elena there as well. He explained that he’d missed the family of four that he’d become close with on the journey from England to America, and had gone in search of them before happening upon the grisly sight of the elder two’s unfortunate end. He’d then confessed his fears about the girls’ fate, and his relief at finding them alive and relatively unharmed.

Jemma had been surprised to find that despite having come to America from England, his accent was different, and Fitz explained that he was from Scotland, but had left after losing his dear mother, looking for a new life elsewhere. Jemma thought him endlessly interesting, and despite the fact that she knew she was going to have to Obliviate him and send him on his way after he’d healed from his concussion, she was excited to have someone to talk with.

And talk they did. They spent every waking moment of every day together, from the time they woke in the morning to the time they went to bed at night. Fitz was naturally curious, and found her magic absolutely _fascinating_ , and Jemma was utterly fond of the way that he always watched in amazement as she entertained Daisy and Elena with shimmering dragons flying through the cabin and glittering unicorns that galloped through the air above them. He had an endless amount of questions about witches and wizards, and Jemma answered each one, even as she promised herself in the back of her mind that he would remember none of this all too soon – and she determinedly ignored the way her sadness grew and grew each time she had to remind herself of that fact.

When Fitz wasn’t questioning Jemma about her magic, _she_ began questioning _him_ all about his life, even though he often insisted that it was nowhere near as interesting as hers. He was a stonemason, and explained that he liked to build things, liked to work with his hands, and had from an early age. Late one night, over cups of tea and long after the girls had been put to bed, Fitz haltingly told the story of how he’d planned to one day build his beloved mother a home worthy of her, in place of the rundown shack of a place he’d grown up in. When he’d added that she’d died before he could make that a reality, his tears had spilled over, and Jemma had been quick to wipe them away and soothe him, and the oddest moment had passed between them then as they spent some inordinate amount of time staring into the other’s eyes and her breath had started to come with a bit more difficulty. However, it had ended as quickly as it’d begun, and Jemma had made her excuses before fleeing from the cabin to make her nightly visit to the Horned Serpent.

The day after, Fitz had proposed the idea to build her a new home over their morning cup of tea. Daisy and Elena had been delighted at the idea, and Jemma had to admit that it was getting a bit cramped with the four of them practically living on top of each other in the little hut she’d built when she first arrived in America – _not_ that Fitz was staying, that was.

So, Fitz and Jemma set to drafting a plan for the little home, and within the week, they had a workable design. They planned to build it on top of Mount Greylock, and just a few days later, the two set out to get to work on it, leaving the girls back at the cabin with the strict instructions to stay inside and stay out of trouble.

As Fitz was surveying the clearing they’d chosen for the sight of the home, Jemma took out her wand, reciting a spell under her breath. With a wave of her hand, piles and piles of stone appeared in front of her. When Fitz turned back around, he gazed in wonder at them, before giving Jemma a wry smile and shaking his head. “Amazing,” he breathed, and oddly enough, he wasn’t looking at the stones, but rather at Jemma herself. Even odder, she felt heat rushing to her cheeks in response, which had been happening more and more often in Fitz’s presence lately.

“You instruct me where to lay them,” Jemma told him, holding her wand aloft as he took a step back to get a better look.

“Alright,” Fitz agreed, squinting his eyes and tilting his head in such a way that Jemma found herself biting her lip to hold back a fond laugh. After a long moment, he began gesturing to where to lay the first row of stones.

In very little time, they were nearly finished laying the stones, and as Jemma used her magic to lay the last stone into place, Fitz shook his head in awe and disbelief, his eyes wide with that same wonder he always had when it came to feats of her magic. With absolutely no heat or intent behind it, Jemma reminded him casually, “You do know I’m going to have to Obliviate you after this. You won’t remember a thing of it.”

“Of course,” Fitz agreed easily, waving a hand at her at the familiar threat. With one last admiring look at their handiwork, he turned to her with a grin that made her heart do an odd little flip. “So, what are we going to call this place, then?”

Jemma turned back to her new home, warmth surging through her at the sight of it. Though it looked nothing like the lovely cottage she and her parents had lived in when she was girl, the feelings it caused in her were identical, and she knew the answer immediately. “Ilvermorny,” she answered decisively, a fond smile ticking her lips up at the corners.

Fitz, who knew what the name meant to her (because he knew everything about her – when had _that_ happened?), gave her a soft smile of understanding, and replied quietly, “It’s perfect, Jemma.”

-

Even though Jemma still vowed every day to Obliviate Fitz, he ended up moving into Ilvermorny with her and the girls, and every night when they parted ways so that Jemma could retire to her bedroom and Fitz to his guest room, it caused a little ache in her heart that told her something wasn’t right. However, she continued to ignore it, along with Daisy’s teasing little comments about how Fitz was _still concussed, right Jemma?_

One day, after making her customary trip to the creek where the Horned Serpent lived, Jemma returned to find that Fitz and the girls had dinner ready and waiting for her, and she was hit with the overwhelming sense that she was _home_ – and it had very little to do with the fact that she was returning to Ilvermorny. For the rest of the night, she was plagued with indecision and fears she hidden from for far too long. She barely spoke during dinner, and Fitz seemed rather upset that his surprise wasn’t well-received, but didn’t say a thing about it.

That night, she retired to her bedroom early, and spent a few hours tossing and turning. Finally, nearing midnight, she sprung out of bed and threw open her door, racing barefoot down the hall. Barely remembering to knock, she yanked open Fitz’s door, stumbling inside gracelessly.

Fitz sat up in bed, his eyes wide with concern. “Jemma?” he prompted, climbing out of bed and crossing the room toward her. A little smirk tugged at lips, and he asked teasingly, “Did you realize that you haven’t threatened to erase my memories yet today?”

Jemma opened her mouth, though no words came out at first, just a gasping sound that could’ve been either a laugh or a sob. Taking a desperate step toward him, she fought for the clarity of mind to convey to him what she’d decided. However, she found none, and her plea came out disjointed and confusing. “I think we…we should just admit… That is, it’s really simplest to… I don’t think either of us has been fooled…” With a great gust of breath, she finally just came out and said, “I love you and I think we should marry.”

He stared at her wordlessly, flabbergasted, for such a long moment that Jemma had the fleeting thought that perhaps it _was_ time to Obliviate Fitz so that he would forget this whole debacle had ever happened. Then, he let out a huge sigh and a slow grin tugged at his lips. “Oh praise the lord. I was beginning to worry that you didn’t feel the same.” With that, it was her turn to gape at him, and he closed the remaining few steps between them with a chuckle. Taking her hands in his, he went on, “Jemma, I love you, and nothing would make me happier than to marry you.”

Jemma let out a little disbelieving laugh at his words, and she gave his hands a slight squeeze. “Truly?”

“Of course!” Fitz took another little step closer, even though there was already very scant space remaining between them, and she could now feel the heat radiating off of him, enticing her closer. “Jemma, you are the single most astounding thing I have ever laid eyes upon. I would be a _fool_ not to fall in love with you.”

The laugh she gave then was similarly disbelieving (how could something this perfect truly be happening?), but also watery with the tears of joy she could feel burning at the backs of her eyes. “I promise, I won’t ever threaten to Obliviate you again.”

Fitz let out a laugh of his own then, rife with amusement, and he beamed at her as he confessed, “I wasn’t going to let you take those memories without a fight. I _never_ want to forget you.”

Jemma wasn’t quite sure what came over her then, but without a single ounce of forethought, she dropped Fitz’s hands in favor of throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips against his. Fitz gave a muffled noise of shock against her mouth, but within moments he had melted into it, and as his arms came up to hold Jemma in return, she felt a sense of certainty and peace wash over her. With Fitz by her side, she knew that she would never be lonely again.


End file.
